The long journey home – Grand Union canal

My personal take on the Grand Union canal

The Grand Union canal is really the boat motorway between London and the Midlands. Wide and mostly quite straight it is possible to go quite a bit faster than on the narrower and shallower canals. The water levels were relatively good too and there was not much weed until just before home. Ideal conditions to make progress towards London. In my mind the southern Grand Union is divided into four parts, going south from Braunston:

• Braunston to Milton Keynes: two lock flights down and otherwise many miles of no locks in very rural countryside.
• The flat section around Milton Keynes: the canal goes around Milton Keynes almost 270 degrees and it takes around eight hours. The canal was there long before Milton Keynes was built. It goes through the villages around it that are now part of the city. The route goes completely through lovely landscaped parks and you never actually see the city at all, but you do cross one of the many highways on an aqueduct.
• Milton Keynes to Tring summit: after Milton Keynes the canal slowly starts climbing towards the Chilterns. It is a very rural area too with only Leighton Buzzard as a sizeable town along the route. The locks are spaced nicely, which makes it an easy cruise.
• Tring summit down to Uxbridge: this is not the end of the canal, just my destination. The Grand union mainline ends at the Thames lock at Brentford. The descent from the summit in the Chilterns is a lot steeper than the ascent. There are many, many locks through Berkhamsted and Hemel Hampstead down to Watford and it can take a whole day to go just a few miles. I find this quite a difficult area.

Some impressions of the landscape on the way. It is sad to see everything so brown:

Braunston to Milton Keynes

I joined the Grand Union mainline just past Braunston at Norton Junction. I still felt a bit under time pressure as the two lock flights on this stretch were on time restrictions due to low water too, which is sometimes a precursor to total closure. I turned up at 10am at the Buckby flight, when the locks were supposed to open and there were already three boats waiting.

Shortly after the locks I was stopped short, because a tree had just fallen blocking the canal. CRT (Canal & River Trust) appeared in under an hour in the form of a woman with a hand saw on a pole. In a joint effort with several waiting boaters we managed to hack off enough to let narrowboats pass again. Yay!

So on to Stoke Bruerne, the second lock flight that was under time restrictions. This time unfortunately no boat to share with turned up, but a number of boats came up the flight so I had some help from them. After that I was a bit more relaxed as there were no more restrictions on my way to London and the water levels looked OK.

The long trip around Milton Keynes

Just before Milton Keynes in Cosgrove the canal crosses the river Great Ouse (how many Ouses are there in Britain?) on an aqueduct that is essentially a big iron tub. It is only short, so with my fear of heights this is just about what I can do without having a panic attack.

The first town that is now part of Milton Keynes is Wolverton. With its own railway station it has a lovely long artwork along a wall. The canal also crosses one of the many highways in Milton Keynes on another aqueduct.

The climb to the Tring summit

After Milton Keynes the canal starts ascending slowly towards the Chilterns. The area is really lovely and the locks are spaced in a way that allows some quiet and scenic cruising between them.

The only real obstacle was a swing bridge that had the mechanism to open it on the offside (as most of them do). These are the worst for single-handers as I have to tie my boat up somewhere on the offside to open and close it. Despite my best efforts I could not get close enough to step off by the bridge as the wind kept pushing me away. I tried and tried until a passing boater on foot took pity on me and opened and closed it for me.

When approaching the Chilterns, the sign for me that the hills are near is the first glimpse of Ivinghoe Beacon. I have walked up this hill several times and never saw the canal from up there.

The last step up to the canal summit is the Marsworth lock flight. The flight goes up alongside the canal reservoirs that feed the Grand Union. The reservoirs are a big nature reserve popular with bird watchers. Reassuringly, the levels in the reservoirs were a bit low, but not catastrophic (I saw pictures of some of the canal reservoirs in the Midlands that were completely empty). Once again, I had to do the locks on my own, but a CRT volunteer and several boats coming down helped me at some locks.

Past the Marsworth flight is the summit level that goes through a long and deep cutting in the Tring Gap, a dip in the Chilterns that also contains the railway and the main road. I love this cutting, especially in hot weather, where it provides much welcome shade. Usually the towpath in Tring is muddy at any time of year, but even that was completely dry this time.

Past Tring I came to the big open vistas at Cowroast (cows’ rest, not BBQ). I always feel that Cowroast is the last truly rural spot before London. The stretch of Marsworth/Tring/Cowroast is maybe my favourite part of the Grand Union.

The descent from the Chilterns

At Cowroast I mentally prepared for the long and strenuous slog coming down from the Chilterns. There are 43 locks over 23 miles. They are spaced not in flights, but one lock every few minutes. I find this relentless and exhausting.

When I turned up at the first lock in Cowroast, I was very lucky to find a boat just preparing to go down. We shared the next seven locks down into Berkhamsted. They were a super good team and we did those locks so efficiently, it was a joy. Amazingly we were also both able to squeeze into very tight mooring spots in the town centre. Berkhamsted is a lovely (and very posh) town with lots of nice shops and restaurants. I did stay for a day for some much needed shopping and a little wander around the market.

Sadly that was the end of my lock sharing for the moment. It got quite hot again (I am not even counting the heatwaves anymore) and I struggled on through the numerous locks. At some point between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hampstead my favourite fuel boat, Andrew on Tadworth (Jules Fuels South) caught up with me. I waited for him hoping that we’d do some more locks together. As a fuel boater he is a master of doing locks efficiently.

Sadly it was not to be. As we were in the first lock, we got a notification that two locks down a lock beam had broken in half and the lock was now closed. Oops! We moored up in a pound that was slowly draining away until both boats were firmly sitting on the bottom (at an angle).

Once more CRT surprised me by showing up on the same day to assess the damage and the next day to repair the lock, which reopened around mid-day. On my way again …

The main place worth mentioning further down is Cassiobury park in Watford. It is a gorgeous place with rivers, wetlands, open spaces and huge beautiful old trees. Running a bit ahead of schedule I staid another day there before finishing my big trip at my home mooring in Uxbridge.

Last words

This trip was epic even though it turned out very differently to how I had originally envisaged it. No Pennine crossing, no visit to York and with the water situation as it is now, I think that may never happen. Both last summer and this summer have shown, how vulnerable the canal network is to climate change. Bad maintenance (reservoirs not operating at capacity or out of service and leaky locks and canal beds) and lack of enthusiasm by the government to properly fund this unique monument of industrial heritage is already leading to a steady decline. I fear that it will mean that some lesser used canals may have to be abandoned in order to keep at least the more popular canals open in the long term. If you want to help preserve this unique monument, please consider signing the petition and/or donating to Fund Britain’s Waterways.

Anyhow … on to the slightly more nerdy stuff. Despite the water problems I did manage to travel 728 miles including 346 locks on 11 different waterways and it took 409 hours of cruising. Comparing this to other trips I have done, it is quite a low number of locks compared to the mileage. This is driven by many miles on the Trent (only 10 locks including the tidal ones) and the Fossdyke & Witham navigations (only 1 lock in its full 42 mile length). In other words: I had it quite easy this time (mainly by skipping Birmingham!).

It was an amazing trip, which took me through the more familiar territories of the Thames, the Oxford canal and the Coventry canal to the West Midlands in Tamworth over winter. This year it was all the new waterways down the Trent. Many miles on tidal waters was also a new adventure for me and not as scary as I thought it would be.

Now it’s time to resume my Helmsman training courses and become used to being in the big smoke again.